The baseball cap leaned against the doorway and looked at her. “I never knew you had this kind of hobby. An adult trying on children’s clothes? Trying to make yourself look young and petite?”
“I’m not that bored. My figure is well-proportioned and healthy, okay?” Yang Chaoyu put the clothes into the wardrobe and asked, “What are you here for?”
“It is quite well-proportioned.” The baseball cap’s tone was ambiguous.
After saying that, he tossed something over.
“Yours. Take a look.”
Yang Chaoyu hurriedly caught it and, upon closer inspection, realized that it was the diary.
“You brought it back?” After asking this unnecessary question, she added, “Forget it. You don’t have to tell me how you got it back. Anyway, thank you.”
“Yes. I helped you retrieve the diary, so you have to exchange information with me.”
Yang Chaoyu: …
Without saying another word, she opened it to see for herself.
However, after flipping through a few pages, she noticed that something was wrong. Every entry was optimistic and positive, like a template diary, and was basically about gratitude toward her parents and hopes for her future younger brother.
“What… kind of diary is this?”
Even the most devout believer couldn’t write about a life this fantastical, could they?
“Look at the last few pages.”
Yang Chaoyu flipped directly to the end.
At first, everything seemed fine. It said that the cute older brother from the neighboring family liked her very much and always came to play with her. Then it described how the older brother had offered to tutor her. Her parents seemed to have agreed and even brought them fruit while he was tutoring her.
But the tone soon changed.
She wrote very tactfully, as though recounting it to someone, but Yang Chaoyu could see what was going on.
This cute older brother from the neighboring family… seemed to have sinister intentions.
She looked toward the baseball cap.
The baseball cap said, “Have you ever heard of a diary called ‘a diary specifically written for someone else to read’?”
His reminder made Yang Chaoyu understand.
This diary had been written for Wen Shaoqiao’s parents to read, which was why it had been filled with gratitude at the beginning. In the final section, she had only written those things because she felt she truly couldn’t hold on any longer and wanted to warn her parents not to let the neighbor’s older brother come over anymore.
Apparently, that strategy had failed.
Because on the final day, she had written: Why are you saying this about me? It clearly wasn’t my fault.
Looking at those words, written with such force that they seemed to pierce through the paper, Yang Chaoyu felt a little distressed.
“Finished? Is there any information you can share?” he asked.
Yang Chaoyu was silent for a while before telling him about the clue Ke Xingyun had obtained.
After listening, the baseball cap said, “You’re so obedient.”
Yang Chaoyu was full of question marks: Obedient about what? Wasn’t this… what you wanted me to exchange clues for?
He walked over and rubbed Yang Chaoyu’s head.
Yang Chaoyu blocked his hand. “What are you doing?”
“When you’re this obedient, it makes people want to pat your head.”
“No need. Goodbye.”
“Hey, I was going to tell you a few of my own clues since you were so obedient.”
Yang Chaoyu nearly laughed in anger when she heard that.
She thought: Say it or don’t say it! Still, although this guy had previously revealed some things while hiding others and had tricked her, he had also given her a little extra information, so the exchange could be considered successful. She felt that she had learned something too—whether the information was accurate or not, it was better to get it first than to know nothing at all. Besides, it was pretty good that he thought she was obedient and well-behaved. After all…
Pretending to be calm, she said, “Then tell me.”
“Clue number one is the trophy on the display shelf in the living room, the child star award Wen Shaoqiao won when she was young. Clue number two is the instruction manual about ‘growth-inhibiting injections’ inside the medical kit in the master bedroom. Clues three and four are unknown. Clue number five is a piece of restricted clothing. It should be something her parents wanted her to try on, though they may also have wanted her to wear it during a livestream…”
Yang Chaoyu: “?”
Would parents really force their child to wear something like that? She suddenly remembered the rather indecent garment she had sat on earlier and felt a jolt of alarm.
So that thing really hadn’t belonged to Wen Shaoqiao’s mother.
Yang Chaoyu felt like vomiting.
The dizziness made her unable to resist climbing into the wardrobe.
“That’s all it takes to break you?” The baseball cap sneered.
“Clue number six is the newspaper clipping in the storybook The Little Mermaid on the bookshelf《, about her being reported for filming indecent art photos》. She had been somewhat famous, but after this incident, her reputation was completely ruined. It’s hard to imagine how she could have gone back to school, or what her classmates would have thought of her.”
Perhaps because he saw how distressed Yang Chaoyu was, he seemed to enjoy himself as he added fuel to the fire.
“Clue number seven is in the hidden compartment of Wen Shaojun’s desk. It was probably dislodged while the desk was being cleaned. Written on it are the words: I have to work hard to make money and support my younger brother. The handwriting goes from crooked and awkward to delicate and graceful, layered over and over, as if she had been hypnotizing herself the entire time.”
Yang Chaoyu remembered the girl being pushed away in the photograph, then remembered her crying in the news report and saying that it wasn’t her.
A dense pain spread through her chest. She asked, “How could there be parents like that?”
Children inherit their ideas from their parents.
Wen Shaoqiao couldn’t possibly have known from birth that she was supposed to support her younger brother. Her parents must have instilled that idea in her, hypnotizing her into becoming a money-making machine. She didn’t dare imagine what kind of life Wen Shaoqiao had truly lived.
Yang Chaoyu’s parents had died young in a car accident.
She had been raised almost entirely by her grandmother, but her grandmother had always told her that her parents loved her very much.
She had always believed that too.
To this day, she still kept a pair of embroidered shoes her mother had made for her.
Honestly, they were a little ugly.
But she had never thrown them away.
Her grandmother said that when Yang Chaoyu was little, she had loved those shoes and even worn them on rainy days. When she came home, both feet had been soaked, and her entire body had been frozen stiff, yet she still hadn’t been willing to change them.
Although her parents had become pale figures in photographs, Yang Chaoyu had never doubted their love.
Because in every photograph, her parents were hugging her tightly, their faces full of happiness.
She had always believed that all parents loved and cherished their children.
Until today.
“Can you still hold on?” the baseball cap asked with a smile.
“Just tell me yours.” She sniffed.
“You look so ugly when you cry.” He shone his flashlight at her.
Yang Chaoyu grew irritated and covered her face. “If I’m ugly, then don’t look.”
The baseball cap moved the flashlight away and said, “clue number eight should be the diary in your hands.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it looks like a very important clue.” He waved the flashlight. “This should be the final straw that broke her.”
Hearing that, Yang Chaoyu asked, “Do you think she committed suicide?”
The baseball cap’s voice rose. “You think she was murdered?”
Yang Chaoyu opened and closed her mouth, unsure how to explain.
Although the girl had endured burdens she should never have had to bear, been misunderstood, and been forced into things, judging from all these clues, she had never attempted suicide.
“She was very strong.”
“Girls collapse easily,” he said.
“People collapse easily, regardless of gender.” Yang Chaoyu could feel her feminist instincts awakening.
“Fine, whatever.” He turned around and said lazily, “There are three clues left, including one hidden clue. You don’t have many chances left. If you don’t get even a single point, you’ll be stuck here forever~”
Yang Chaoyu snorted, but her heart trembled.
She hadn’t forgotten that one of the three rules the baseball cap had told her earlier mentioned the present world. If the Illusory World, Void World, otherworld, and places like them truly existed, then if she failed to find the clues, would she really never be able to return?!
Although she was alone, she had her adorable little companions, novels she could never finish reading, comics that would never stop updating, games that were forever in development…
She didn’t want to stay here!
She abruptly stood up and looked toward the wardrobe.
She refused to believe that the baseball cap could find every clue.
He knew absolutely nothing about girls, and even less about the ways girls hid things!